Regrettable That Candidates Resort To Malpractices To Succeed In Competitive Exams, Sincere Students Become Victims: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has observed that it is regrettable that the candidates appearing for competitive examinations have to resort to malpractices and tampering in order to succeed, as a result of which innocent and sincere students become victims of their colleagues’ disorderly conduct.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said that such situations do not leave the State or its agencies with any other option but to cancel the examination altogether.

“It is observed that it becomes extremely difficult for the agencies conducting such examinations to determine and identify exactly how many students have engaged in such malpractices and irregularities,” the court said.

Justice Singh made the observations while dismissing a petition moved by various candidates who applied for the post of Junior Assistant or Office Assistant in the vacancy notified by Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University. However, the entire examination was cancelled by the varsity due to cases of tampering and use of unfair means detected at two centers in CBRT, a computer-based examination.

It was the petitioners’ case that the varsity’s action of cancelling the entire examination because of a few cases of use of unfair means was arbitrary and unreasonable, and also in violation of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.

Rejecting the petition, Justice Singh observed that maintaining the sanctity of the selection process is of utmost importance while conducting an examination of any kind.

“Any tampering with the same, might result in suffering caused to the candidates who participate in such examination process with honesty, however, there may be certain situations wherein the nature of the irregularities may be varied making it impossible to determine the number of candidates involved in the said irregularity,” the court said.

It noted that a computer-based examination was tampered with and two FIRs were also filed by the University, following which the examination had to be cancelled three times.

“The very integrity of the entire selection process was compromised and DSEU could not determine the extent to which the entire process was compromised and hence, had to resort to cancelling the entire examination process, in order to protect the sanctity of the recruitment process,” the court said.

Justice Singh held that the petitioners failed to put forth propositions that would warrant the court’s interference and that a writ cannot be issued as the varsity was well within its authority to cancel the examination process in order to maintain the sanctity.

Counsel for Petitioners: Anuj Aggarwal and Ms. Shreya Kukreti, Advocates.

Counsel for Respondents: Mr. Shivendra Singh with Mr. Bikram Dwivedi, Advocates for R-1 and 2. Mr. Akshit Tyagi proxy for Mr. Naushad Ahmed Khan, Advocate for R-3 and 4.

Title: KAVI VAIDWAN & ORS. v. DELHI SKILL AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP UNIVERSITY & ORS.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 1020

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